The Old Globe Theatre is planning something new for the 15th season of its popular holiday show: An “autism-friendly” performance of “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”

The performance, set for 10:30 a.m. Dec. 15, will include both small adjustments to the show itself and (perhaps just as important) a friendly and flexible environment for people on the autism spectrum and their families.

The autism-friendly initiative is the first of its kind for the Globe (or any major San Diego theater company). It takes after similar, very popular performances of “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins” on Broadway (as well as the “sensory-friendly” movie screenings offered by the AMC cinema chain).

Tickets go on sale Sept. 9, although details of distribution and pricing are still being worked out.

The Globe, which began work on the idea last year, has received guidance from the Theatre Development Fund, the New York-based nonprofit behind the “Mary Poppins” and “Lion King” initiatives.

“They would love to see this happening all over the place,” said Roberta Wells-Famula, the Globe's director of education. “They’ve seen how it’s been received with such joy by the public. They were just astounded by the reaction they got, and how quickly the shows sold out.”

Autism is a spectrum of conditions that, in various combinations and to various degrees, affect people in three main areas: Communication, social skills and behavior (the latter sometimes characterized by repetition or very narrow interests).

Some people with autism can be highly sensitive to loud noises, bright lights or other sensory stimuli. Others may have difficulty sitting through a whole live show without a break, or may vocalize or have other behaviors that the average theater patron isn’t accustomed to.

“This is one of the problems for many families of children with autism,” as Wells-Famula puts it. “It isn’t (always) the kind of thing where you look at a child and say, ‘Oh, that child has autism.’ You can’t see it. You don’t know. And so you see a child acting a certain way, and you react. You say, ‘That child is misbehaving,’ or ‘That parent is a bad parent.’

“Parents are afraid to take their children somewhere. So they don’t. They don’t want to disturb other people.

"So this is intended to be a welcoming, warm environment, an accepting environment, for families who get it. These are people who know what the other families are going through, and they’re all there together to say, we understand each other, we accept you.”

Some elements of the Globe’s autism-friendly initiative:

• Recruitment of autism specialists to act as volunteers (the theater already is working with local autism-focused groups).

• Training for all theater staff who’ll be interacting with the public.

• A special rehearsal for the show’s cast, as well as a briefing on what the actors might expect to hear or see from the audience.

• A toning-down of loud noises and flashes during the performance, as well as of some scenes where actors rush into the aisles (although this will otherwise be substantially the same show).